St. Paul daily globe., 1887-10-30
Chicago Tribune.

cOIllpdIllcS. lie DTOlneTS udNc .lll6 Tepu-
tation of having given performances in
more strange quarters of the globe than
any other actors in existence. There
in or near Liverpool, England.
In order of age they were
Thomas. George. William. Alfred, Ed
ward and Frederick. Thomas died
some years ago from the effects of a fall,
and Alfred and Frederick died from
natural causes in 1885, one being at the
time in California and another in
Europe. The father of the Hanlons was
a well-knOwn actor, and at one time
manager of the Theater Royal. in Liv-
erpO0l. The boys came to this country
many years ago, and call New York
their home, all being most enthusiastic
Americans. After prosperity came to
them they brought their father and
mother over here, and the old lady is
still alive and vigorous. The wandering
habits and daring ventures in new fields
by the brothers seem to have come
from the ideas of Prof. Lees, who
trained the. youths as gymnastS. and
who was the head of the party on the
first trip around the world. Mr.. Han
Ion was asked to tell the story of this
old journey and its novel experiences.
A WILD SPECULATION.
eve were iittle more than boys, my
brother William and - said he, ''when
we started out with Lees on that expe-
ditiOn. Lees was remarkable man, a
giant i'll strength. sometimes reckless
and the braveSt man / ever saw. He
had few thousand pounds of his own.
and these were expended in drOll way
before we got far on our journey. He
was the absolute head of the expedition.
We had to do just what he told us and
it was useless to protest. We started
from England for France and performed
there for some time, and then wandered
cradle success and then sailed for
Malta. We performed in Malta, Corfu,
Smyrna and Athens and then sailed for
Alexandria. Here our troubles be-
gan. There was no theater in Alex
andria, and Lees decided that there
was fortune in one there. He had it
built. The people came in thr0ng the
opening night and we were in ecstasieS.
The next night no one came. The
AleXandrianS had seen performance
once and that was sufficient. The
theater was failure. Next Lees was
plundered by robbers, who broke into
the house where we were living. Still
money enough remained to get to Cairo
with and to enable the repetition of a
wild experiment. Lees concluded that
he had built his theater in the wrong
city and that Cairo was the place for it.
Another theater. the first one in Cairo,
was erected. The result was repeti-
ton of what had occurred in Alexandria.
We were now literally busted
IN THE DESERT.
eve wanted to go to India. The pro-
prietOr of the hotel where were stopping
took an interest in our affairs and adj
vised us to wait until the overland mail
came in-that was before the days of
fast travel and the Suez can aI-and give
performance, when we might get
money enough to go on with. We did
as he suggested and got some money,
but not enough for our purpose. Then
Lees got the English minister interested
in securing an exhibition before the
vicerOy. AbaS Pasha, the then reigning
khedive or vlceroy, was at a place in
the desert, sort of oasis, called Dab ell
Beker, and said that if we wished to per-
form we must come to him. We had no
alternative in our condition of need.
We went into the desert, pleased the
vicerOy, and were kept there perform
ing for week. 1t was queer expert
ence, and not an altogether unpleasant
one. Abas Pasha was ruler Of import
ance and rich; he gave us plenty of
money, and when we left him honOred
us with many valuable personal gifts.
These gifts served good ends in times of
future need.
''Well," continued George Hanlon--
his brother William having meanwhile
come in and become a listener-.swe
started then for India. That was our
experience. eh, William"
Il should think So" was the reply.
eve reached Madras, but were not
allowed to land at the time, and then
went to Calcutta. We found a rival at
traction there, and what do you think it
was? The New York Serenaders,' with
Bernard and Frank Moran along. Both
men are living yet-one in New York,
the other in Philadelphia. We had a
pretty good time together. Then we
started off alone, and for many months
were among the rajahs and nabObs. We
went to Mysore, and as the cholera sea-
son came on fled north into the apple
country. There were strange sights on
the way which impressed us younger
fellows strongly: Do you remember
the monkeys, William?"
Rather said William. s'The trees
seemed full of them for hundreds of
miles along the route. Wes one day,
by the way, the spectacle you read of,
where monkeys cross stream by max
ing living bridge and swinging them
selves across. 1t was a queer sight.
IN THE JAWS OF cRoCoDILEs.
''Well," continued the narrator, 1--WE
had all sorts of experiences. We had
to travel in palanQuins through jungIes
and over mountains. There was no
stopping Lees. The man was marvel
At one place, Sanngapatam. scorpions
fell on us from the roof where our
trapeze was fixed. Once we performed
in palace made all OF sandal wood,
giving out its perfume as do the fans
ladies carry. At the old palace of Tip
poo Sahib we had narrow escape from
death. In the height of his power. be-
fore he was Subdued by the English,
that ruler had surrounded his castle with
a great m0at full of water and had filled
the water with crOcodileS, thinking that
no one would cross mOat thus murder
Ously haunted. Indeed, when the fight
did come off, many of the wounded who
fell into the moat were devoured by the
monsters. The English, oddly enough,
after coming into possession of the
place, did not destroy the crocOdiles, as
it was thought their presence in the
mOat might be of value in preventing
the deSerCl0n or S0ldlefS OF the native
contingent. don't know whether that
end was gained OF not, but | do know
that Lees, who was regular water dog.
insisted that we should all go swimming
in the mOat one morning, and that we
were pulled out of danger just in time.
You can imagine our sensations when
we were informed of what was in the
mOat.
ssWe made money in India, and had
many rich gifts bestowed upon us.
From there we sailed for Australia, and
did it thoroughly. 1t was rough place
in those days, and in Bendigo and Bal
larat we had some hard experiences.
The usual question IN the morning
was, who was killed last night?'
Then we sailed for South America.